Mid-Missouri school’s lawyer discusses student’s suicide

The lawyer for Glasgow Schools in mid-Missouri says a student who committed suicide in December is a tragedy, but his death is not the school’s fault. A coroner’s jury says Glasgow Schools and the teen’s workplace were negligent in the death. Tom Mickes says the school has a strict anti-bullying policy, but nobody told teachers that 17-year-old Kenneth Suttner was being harassed.

“In my opinion, it was a preconceived notion that the coroner wanted to tag the school district and so he cherry-picked the evidence,” says Mickes.

Mickes says the district followed its bullying policies.

“There’s information that the prosecutor had that he did not use that would’ve taken the spotlight off the district, maybe the DQ lady. I don’t know,” says Mickes.

The manager of the Dairy Queen in Fayette where Suttner worked has been charged with second-degree involuntary manslaughter for repeatedly ridiculing the teen.

April Wilson, the special prosecutor overseeing the case, said the school district’s and Dairy Queen’s alleged negligence would not lead to criminal charges but could result in civil actions.